Heck, if you’re pulled over and cited for distracted driving, by law in Massachusetts it cannot affect your insurance rates.

It seems harmless until it isn’t.

At any given daylight moment, some 660,000 drivers across the country are using hand-held electronic devices, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On average they take their eyes off the road for five seconds.

Two years ago, 420,000 people nationwide were injured in distracted driving-related accidents. More than 3,300 died.

“It’s huge,” Abington Lt. Kevin Sullivan said of the problem.

During an impaired driving crackdown last week, Abington police officers in unmarked vehicles watched as drivers pulled up next to them, faces buried in screens.

One driver told the plain clothes officer who pulled him over that he was not texting and driving. He was watching a YouTube video.

Another was driving a school van while texting, though no children were inside when he was stopped by police.

The crackdown, following the passage of a 2010 state law banning texting while driving, netted 56 citations for the Abington police, the vast majority for texting and most involving $100 fines.

However, consistent police enforcement is difficult, especially when departments rely on officers in marked cruisers.

“If you’re going to focus on distracted driving, you have to be out there and sit and watch,” Sullivan said.

Massachusetts law allows for stiffer penalties for distracted drivers, focusing on cell phone use. Junior operators and public transportation drivers are banned from cell phone use completely, even the use of a hands-free device. Other drivers are subject to fines starting at $100 and reaching $500.

Along with West Bridgewater, Abington is one of the only communities in the region that has directed resources toward targeting distracted drivers. Police Chief David Majenski said he plans to do more in the near future.

“It was a successful educational effort,” Majenski said. "A lot of people learned what not to do.”

This winter, West Bridgewater kicked off its second campaign against texting while driving. Last year, the police department stopped 334 operators for suspected texting, and issued 172 civil citations for the violation.

Most accidents on Route 106 are rear-enders and most of those involve distracted driving, Lt. Vic Flaherty said earlier this year. He attributed the drop in citations during the department’s latest crackdown to previous enforcement.

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Yet, even where police are focusing on the behavior, it can prove hard to change.

One woman in Abington was pulled over twice in the course of the week. She received $100 fines both times, as the paperwork had not worked its way through the system yet and she did not qualify for a second offense penalty, Sullivan said.

“These are very difficult laws to enforce,” said Mitch Librett, a professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State University.

“It’s not difficult to write a ticket,” he said. “But when you get to court it’s sometimes difficult to establish that someone was in fact using a hand-held device.”